


Page 3

by hopeandjoy



Series: IkeSoren Week 2021 [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Day 1: Childhood/Feral Drug, Gen, IkeSoren Week 2021, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, but if you're an ikesoren fan you probably already know it, but soren's crush is powerful enough to be tagged, spoilers for the RD tower base convo technically, the ikesoren is a little one sided because they're babies here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:02:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28552815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeandjoy/pseuds/hopeandjoy
Summary: "Greil could only wonder at what a child wanted with the commander of a mercenary group."Greil "hires" a tiny new "mercenary" to teach his kids. Soren works through the fact Ike doesn't remember saving his life.
Relationships: Ike/Senerio | Soren
Series: IkeSoren Week 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2091957
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36
Collections: IkeSoren Week 2021





	Page 3

**Author's Note:**

> I am.... alive. Ikesoren week is partially organized in my server so I felt I should get off my butt and write.
> 
> Title is from the opening line of Two Breaths Walking (「これは僕の進化の過程の3ページ目です。」/“This is the third page of the process of my evolution.”) by DECO*27 because I was listening to it's Reloaded version on repeat while I was writing this but it doesn't exactly fit the fic so I didn't just. Name it after Two Breaths Walking.

“Commander, there’s a visitor here to see you.”

Greil looked up from his work at the sound of the door to his office opening accompanied by Titania’s voice. His second-in-command looked vaguely amused and Greil had a feeling he knew why when he saw the visitor who she had announced. Standing next to Titania was a young boy with dark hair and red eyes in dirty brown clothing. Greil could not exactly place the child’s age – he was smaller than his son Ike but seemed older than Mist. However, for all he knew the boy was Mist’s age and was just being aged by the serious look on his face and his unfortunately hollow face.

Greil could only wonder at what a child wanted with the commander of a mercenary group.

“You are the commander of this group, yes?” the boy asked. His serious tone matched his serious looks – but nevertheless such frank language from a child barely into his double digits at best threw Greil off guard.

“I am,” Greil said. “I’m Greil of the Greil Mercenaries.”

“My name is Soren, and I am a traveling mage,” the boy said. Greil glanced at Soren. He indeed was clutching a Wind tome to his chest, the large book making him seem even smaller. “I would like to join your mercenary group.”

Greil and Titania both startled before looking at each other. While Greil’s own children lived with the mercenary group, he was hardly in the business of hiring child soldiers. At a loss of how exactly to approach the situation, Greil said, “My group is not exactly the type to take apprentices. And even if it were, we currently don’t have any mages for you to train under.”

“There’s no need,” Soren said. “I’ve already trained under a sage. I’m fluent in the ancient tongue.” The boy’s face did not change as he continued his argument. “I can do whatever you ask of me.”

Titania’s eyes widened and she cut in. “Do your parents know you’re here, young man? Wouldn’t they be worried if you joined a mercenary group?”

Soren looked Greil dead in the eyes. “I don’t have any parents. If you were to deploy me, there would be no one to miss me.”

It was then that Greil noticed the red mark upon the boy’s forehead. The mark, the lack of baby fat on the boy’s cheeks, his statement about his parents, his lack of value for his own life – it was then that Greil understood the situation.

He couldn’t live with himself if he threw this Branded child back into the wild, but he had no interest in throwing him at the axes of brigands either. Greil had the feeling though that the boy would not accept charity either – he would have to come up with an excuse.

“You said you are fluent in the ancient tongue,” Greil said, thinking quickly. “What other skills do you have?”

“I can read and write in both the modern and ancient tongue and do math,” Soren replied. “I was taught in the church.”

And yet he had left the church already to become a mercenary? Greil could not understand what drove this boy here. Nevertheless, he slid a paper from his desk down. “Could you read this for me?”

Soren took the paper from Greil. “It says, ‘…regarding your request for the Greil Mercenaries to rout the bandits preventing your village from receiving visitors, we would be happy to help. The price you have named, however, is twice that of what normally charge. There is no need to offer us that much. We are happy to work for our usual rate- ‘” Soren looked up at Greil. “Shouldn’t you just accept their money? You would get more that way.”

Greil laughed. “Perhaps, but it’s goodwill that gives you more jobs. More jobs are more pay – and getting two more job offers from the one would pay more than charging double and only having the one job.” He stroked his chin, pretending to be deep in thought. “Hmm… I suppose I could hire you.”

“Commander Greil!” Titania exclaimed in shock.

Greil held up his hand. “At this time, I’m afraid I don’t have any need for soldiers. However, I do have a son and daughter.” Greil smiled at Soren. “I believe they need a tutor.”

Soren’s eyes widened. “Tutor him…?” Greil heard him whisper to himself. After that brief moment of shock, however, the boy’s face returned to its original serious look. “I would be pleased to accept that job offer, Commander Greil.”

He could’ve laughed at the image of such a small child calling him “commander” with such a serious face, but Greil managed to hold it together and look at Titania without cracking. “Could you fetch Ike and Mist?” he asked her.

Titania looked between him and Soren before nodding. “Yes, Commander,” she said.

After she left, Greil looked back at Soren. “I’ve been trying to teach my children to read and write myself, but I’m afraid I don’t have enough time. My son also seems to be struggling a bit, and, well… I believe he may be more willing to sit and listen to someone his age than an old man like me. Do you think you can teach them in my stead?”

Soren nodded eagerly. “Yes, Commander.”

Greil had not expected that Soren would be this pleased to tutor after he seemed so set on being a mercenary, but he was not going to question this development.

He only had a few minutes alone with Soren (during which Greil discovered that the boy was already capable of advanced arithmetic) before Greil heard Titania open the door once again, Ike and Mist filing into his office as she held the door open for them. As soon as she saw Soren, Mist darted behind her brother, unsure of the new child. But Ike looked at the boy with curiosity.

“This is Soren,” Greil explained. “He’s going to be the new tutor for both of you.”

“Nice to meet you, Soren!” said Ike. “My name’s Ike.”

Greil watched as a sudden pained look crossed Soren’s face. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said, suddenly without the confidence he had possessed up until this point.

He had barely any time to consider this before Greil heard Mist ask Soren in that blunt way of young children: “Where’s your mommy and daddy?”

“Mist!” Ike scolded. “You can’t ask things like that!”

However, it seems that Mist’s blunt question had given Soren enough time to school his face back into neutrality. It was like the pain seemingly caused by Ike’s introduction had never even shown. “It’s alright,” Soren said matter-of-factly. “I don’t have any.”

“Oh,” Mist said. “I don’t have a mommy either.”

Before the conversation could get much worse, Greil cut in. “Ike, why don’t you show Soren to the barracks? We should let him get settled in before he has to teach you,” he said.

Ike brightened at that suggestion. “C’mon Soren! I sleep in a bunk bed, and there’s a bunk right under me you can use,” he said, grabbing Soren’s hand and beginning to drag him out of the room.

“Ike!” Mist cried, running after the two boys. “Don’t leave me behind!”

Greil noted to himself the faint red dusting Soren’s pale face as Ike grabbed his hand, but then cast it out of his mind. More important right now was to re-balance the ledger now that there was another mouth to feed on base.

* * *

Soren was not sure how to feel about his new life with the Greil Mercenaries. On one hand, he was finally reunited with Ike after all these years, and he had proven to be as kind and generous as he was in Soren’s memory. But on the other, Ike seemed to have no memory of him before they met again in his father’s office. And it was no wonder. As Soren previously noted, Ike was kind and generous. Perhaps he had given hope to many other starving children. It would be just like him. It would figure that Soren would no be as special to Ike as Ike was to him.

“Argh!” Ike exclaimed, knocking Soren from his brooding. Soren refocused on Ike’s face, embarrassed on how he had let his mind wander while he was supposed to be watching Ike scratch out his writing in the dirt. Ike threw aside his stick before rubbing out his letters with his foot. “It’s no use,” Ike said. “I’m never going to be able to spell.”

“Spelling is a matter of practice,” Soren said. “You’ve been getting better every day.”

“When am I going to use spelling as a mercenary?” Ike grumbled, plopping down on the ground.

“Your father receives and writes letters all the time.” Soren considered Ike, watching him as he bounced his leg in frustration even while sitting. He knew that after a certain point, Ike would be unable to learn much more that day. In fact, if Soren looked closely, he could see Ike’s left eye twitch. That point was probably now. “We can be done for today, if you’d like,” he said.

“Yes!” Ike cheered, jumping up. Soren smiled a little to himself and began to bend over to pick up his scattered books so he could return to the barracks.

He stopped when he saw Ike’s feet in front of his eyes and looked up at him. Ike was looking at Soren in confusion. “Aren’t you going to stick around to play?” Ike asked him.

Soren paused. He had never been asked to play before. “Play what?”

Ike scratched his chin. “I dunno. Tag, maybe?” At Soren’s blank look, Ike asked, “Do you know how to play tag?”

“…I’ve never played it before,” Soren admitted.

“Well, that’s not a problem! Tag’s easy. One of us will be ‘it’ and have to catch the other and touch them. When that happens, the touched person becomes ‘it’ and then has to catch the person who touched them.”

“That’s all?”

“Well,” Ike said. “You also have to put down your books so you can run better.”

Soren looked at his books for a moment before letting them drop. “Ok,” he said.

Ike blinked. “I didn’t expect you to agree that fast.”

“What else do I need to do?” Soren asked.

“I’ll be ‘it’ first,” Ike said. “All you need to do is start running when I say ‘go’, ok?”

“Ok.”

“Ready? Set? Go!” Ike said, and Soren took off running.

He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to run to a particular place, but the flower field outside of the fort was a vast open space, so Soren merely ran forward. In what seemed like no time at all, Soren felt Ike touch his back, even though he was running as fast as he could.

“Tag, you’re it!” Ike said, before running off. Soren watch him run almost to the tree line before Ike looked behind him and ran back to where Soren was. “Now that you’re it, you have to chase me, remember?”

“Don’t I have to say go?”

“That’s only to start the game. After that, when you’re tagged you should just start chasing me right away!”

Soren processed this before nodding. “Got it. Are you ready to go now?”

Ike laughed. “Sure!” He then ran off again.

Soren broke out in a run behind Ike, but quickly realized he had no way to catch up. Ike was simply faster than him. But he didn’t want to give up on the game. Soren had seen other children playing before, but this was the first time he was invited to play himself. Who knew when he’d get a chance like this again?

If speed wouldn’t allow Soren to win, there had to be another way. Soren considered the tree line. Ike was focused purely on the path ahead of him, so perhaps…

Soren broke from following exactly behind Ike and ran through the edge of the forest. Eventually, he was perpendicular to Ike, and Ike had not noticed him. Sprinting as fast as he could so as to not lose the advantage, Soren tapped Ike. “Tag, you’re it,” he said, before sprinting away.

Ike laughed.

Eventually the two grew tired, and collapsed flat on their backs on the ground, panting and laughing. Soren then felt his stomach twist and let out a loud gurgle. Embarrassed, Soren sat up. “I guess it’s time to head back to the fort,” he said and went to grab his books.

“Yeah,” Ike said, following behind him and grabbing the bag Titania had packed for him before the two boys had left.

Ike fell into step beside Soren as the began down the path back to the fort, but Soren looked curiously at Ike as Ike went through his bag before pulling out an apple.

“Here,” he said, handing it to Soren. “Your stomach growled earlier.”

Soren didn’t take the apple. “…It’s yours, though.”

“Yeah, but I’m not hungry yet. You can have it.” Ike continued to hold it out.

Finally, Soren reached out and took the apple from Ike. He held it in his hand for a moment, admiring it, before finally taking a bite.

Yes, Ike was kind and generous, and probably fed starving orphans all the time but… He still hadn’t changed from the time Soren met him.

But what had changed was Soren’s ability to say back: “Thank you.”

Ike grinned. “It’s not a problem!”

It was then that Soren decided that it didn’t matter that Ike didn’t remember him – that he was still willing to reach out his hand to Soren was enough.


End file.
